Employee witnesses 2 co-workers’ deaths: Workers’ comp for PTSD?
June 25, 2012 by Fred HosierPosted in: Injuries, new court decision, Special Report, Workers' comp
PDF No one should have to witness a co-worker’s death. Imagine witnessing two such deaths in separate incidents just two months apart. A worker who witnessed both deaths was diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). His employer wanted to deny workers’ comp benefits, saying the statute of limitations ran out.
Steven Ratliff worked for Ameristeel in Tennessee.
In February 2008, a co-worker fell to his death from a platform in the plant. Ratliff was asked to bring a defibrillator to the scene. He saw his co-worker’s body in a pool of blood.
In April 4, 2008, another worker, Jason Blackmon, fell to his death in a different area of the plant. Earlier that day, Ratliff delivered a cake to Blackmon who had bought it from Ratliff’s daughter for a school fundraiser.
When Ratliff learned of Blackmon’s fall, he and several other employees went to the scene. Ratliff saw EMTs trying to revive Blackmon.
Despite being distraught, Ratliff returned to work for several days and declined grief counseling offered by Ameristeel.
In the meantime, Ratliff had previously scheduled surgery on his shoulder. While he was recovering, he had time away from work to think about his two co-workers’ deaths. He started to develop more anxiety about returning to work.
He returned to work in June, but he experienced crying spells, shortness of breath and a rapid heartbeat.
On June 23, 2008, Ratliff experienced a crying spell while coaching his daughter’s softball team. His wife took him to the ER where he was diagnosed with PTSD.
Ratliff’s primary care physician treated him for the PTSD. He tried to return to work, but his doctor finally advised him to seek a job elsewhere. The doctor said Ratliff had a 5% permanent impairment from the PTSD, but he didn’t place any restrictions on his activities.
On June 23, 2009, one year after the trip to the ER when the PTSD diagnosis was first made, Ratliff filed a request for a workers’ comp benefit review.
Ameristeel asked that Ratliff’s claim be thrown out, arguing that the one-year statute of limitations had expired. The company said the clock started ticking on the day of the second worker’s death. Ratliff argued the clock started on the day he received his diagnosis.
A trial court agreed with the company and threw out the case. Ratliff appealed and the Tennessee Supreme Court heard the case.
The state’s highest court noted that it had previously ruled that the clock starts when the employee becomes aware of a compensable injury, not when the incident that caused the injury occurred.
Therefore the court found Ratliff was entitled to an award of permanent partial disability benefits of 20% to the body as a whole.
What do you think about the court’s ruling? Let us know in the comments below.
(Ameristeel v. Ratliff, TN Supreme Court, No. W2011-00381-SC-R3-WC, 6/7/12)
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Tags: Ameristeel, post traumatic stress disorder, statute of limitations, witness co-worker's death
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June 25th, 2012 at 9:17 am
I have a hard time agreeing with this one and I’ll explain why. Let me relate my experience first.
I had to take a final physical when leaving the Marines following Desert Storm. The doctor and I spoke about me leaving the Corps after almost 8 years and getting a regular job and I told him I was very nervous about that. Looking back in hindsight I think that anyone leaving the bubble which is the United States Marine Corps might be apprehensive about returning to civilian life. A few years later I received a packet from the Dept of the Navy asking me to participate in a study for Gulf War Syndrome. I got a chance to see my military records and that last doctor wrote that I was suffering from PTSD, which was why I was picked for this study. I have never shown signs or symptoms of PTSD since that physical and I believe the doctor got it wrong.
There are no test, the last I heard, for PTSD. For that reason the diagnosis ends up being a subjective opinion from a medical provider. There is no conclusive treatment to get the person well and it’s up to the individual to relay that subjective information. Now, there is nothing in this article that says whether this companies practices, procedures, or overall safety culture contributed to these fatalities. It doesn’t indicate how these falls took place at all, if the company or the employees themselves were at fault. The guy brought a defibulator to the first scene that’s all. He was not injured in the fall and he was not directly part of any rescue or emergency treatment as it’s reported here. How is it that the company has to pay partial disability for the rest of his life because of a medical condition that can’t be tested or cured? What would prevent co-workers from any company which suffers a fatality from claiming the same thing. And here is now a precedent for them.
June 25th, 2012 at 2:55 pm
VS, First of all let me thank you for protecting our country, my family and myself by sacrificing yourself for our freedom. Thank You. Now back to the article. I would think there would be some kind of psycological procedure to determine if any mental stability damage has come about. But I’m not sure. You had a physical with a normal doctor per say and not a psychiatrist. I’m sure others in the service are diagnosed with PTSD after seeing a psychiatrist. Especially after heavy battle with death all around them. Mr Ratliff seen only his primary care doctor so I’m with you in regards about a doctor not being able to perform testing to diagnose PTSD. He shouldn’t get to collect WC because of his doctors opinion. Now if I would have been in Mr Ratliff position after the first death, I would have gotten OSHA in there to investigate and maybe the second death would have been prevented.
June 26th, 2012 at 8:17 am
I have to agree with VS. when there is no procedure for diagnoses and no real way to treat, how can there be a justifiable case for disability. In this case especially, the worker had turned down all opportunity for therapy after the accidents. that should have been a requirement for getting the disability payments. Reading the story he definitely had some psychological disorder, but just like any injury at my plant, if you refuse initial treatment you don’t get to claim workers comp.
June 26th, 2012 at 10:05 am
I work in EMS and I see this alot. The biggest problem with what happen to Mr Ratliff is that he was able to decline the first session of greif couseling. Yes just wittnessing an event can cause PTSD Mr. Ratliff didn’t have to actually work the men that died just seeing them and witnessing the events as they unfolded would have cause stress. You have to look at it this way Mr Ratliff works in a plant and he is a man it’s not preceived as the cool thing to go to couseling. Even as an Paramedic I denied needing help for a really bad call. After several months and crying to and from work 45 mins each way. Showing up late for my shifts and wanting to leave earily my Manager required that I go to the company couselor. I was ashamed and didn’t want my co-workers knowing that I couldn’t cope with see a small child’s death. After time the walls at our company came down and we began to support each other and talk more openly about the stress of the job and advise our Partners to speak to the Company couselor. Mr. Ratliff was taken to the ER for his PTSD I am sure a psychological elev was done there. Part of the story is missing and additional some people can get PTSD when they have to return to the scene where the event happen. There are certain things the person with PTSD says that let you know right away they have PTSD. For instance, shortness of breath, racing heart, movie play in their head, crying fit for no reason or when you get close to the pace where the event happen are all things that happen to people with PTSD. There were some big clues in the article that Mr Ratliff had PTSD. He scheduled a surgery shortly after the second event and didn’t return to work while recovering from his surgery. One of the very last steps in recovering from PTSD is to return to the scene where the event happen to know that you are safe. This plant must be very dangerous to have had two deaths within such a short time period. So Mr Ratliff would never feel…
June 26th, 2012 at 10:31 am
Well put VS. With my sincere thanks for your service and I am in agreement with your assessment of the facts in the article. In my state “stress” is non compensible. I agree, everyone is under stress and have been since birth. All too often employers pay for conditions which started years before employment. When some people find a target, they shoot for it and that employer will pay. In a previous life I was an OSHA compliance officer, I investigated fatalities, now at a late date can I go back to my employer and say I am having PTSD? I looked at accident scenes, interviewed employees, and looked at bodies all of which was distrubing. WOW I may be on to something?
June 26th, 2012 at 11:30 am
I think the right decision was made. PTSD is not something that appears/develops the instant adverse situations arise. The worker may have felt okay with the situation at the time, but as time passed it developed. Subconscious thoughts are just that-subconscious, he probably wasn’t even aware of these underlying thoughts. It was by his behavior-the crying spells, shortness of breath, etc. that he went to a doctor who provided a diagnosis. How could the worker apply for a benefit when he was not aware he had an issue? Until there was a diagnosis he could not. Hence, it seems logical that 1 year from the time the person has been diagnosed is more reasonable.
June 26th, 2012 at 12:31 pm
Big thanks to all who sacrifice for freedom.
PTSD is real but it is not a ‘have it or don’t have it’ kind of thing; it is a spectrum of mild to severe. VS, you had training. Did the doctor write, “Mild PTSD”? Steel workers do not recieve any training for this kind of thing. Steel workers do not go to work prepared to watch people die. They have the right to feel safe, and how could this worker if the employer failed to prevent a second death? Trauma of watching friends die in the place where you are expected to work? Yes, pay the benefits and fix the safety hazard.
And Willie, how can you blame the victim for not preventing the second death? Do you blame rape victims too?
Greed is the reason this company is paying 20% instead of the 5% the doctor diagnosed. Employers need to understand their responsiblities to their teams.
June 26th, 2012 at 12:36 pm
Have you ever lived with someone with PTSD? Ask the families…we know its there, no one has to tell us. Most of the time we see it before the person suffering from it does. This affects the entire family. Sometimes this can come on years later after speaking to someone that went through the same/similar experience or a smell that reminds them or another traumatic event. Yes to the benefits.
June 26th, 2012 at 12:52 pm
I agree with VS - good call.
Also I’d like to respond to Willy, who assumes some type of testing for mental disorders exists when you see a psychiatrist or other mental health professional. Willy, no such tests exist. Every diagnosis - yes, EVERY diagnosis, and I mean PTSD, bipolar, ADHD, all of them - is a subjective one. There are no physical exams for these things - no blood tests, no CT scans. Isn’t that interesting? And these opinions are the basis for drugging people with mind-altering drugs for the entire lives.
I don’t deny that the subject in this story is being affected by his experiences, I want to make that clear. I totally get it and I have seen it before, many times. I just thought my point above was a valid one, and in so saying: If we open up stress and mental disorders to be covered by WC, watch out. Not a good scene.
June 26th, 2012 at 1:47 pm
April, What are you reading? I didn’t state he was the blame for the second death. I’m just saying if he would have called OSHA and they had a chance to investigate “MAYBE” it could have been prevented.
June 26th, 2012 at 1:56 pm
Yes there is an illness PTSD. and he should be granted the benefits. But the company had the right to deny him because he refused the treatment the company offered him.
April, I don’t think Willy was blaming the victim for the second death.
June 26th, 2012 at 2:12 pm
Thanks for clarifying that Megan. Really. But I never stated I assumed there was some kind of testing. I said some kind of procedure. You know like going over symptoms and talking about how the guy feels etc. I also stated that I wasn’t sure. Thanks again.
June 26th, 2012 at 2:16 pm
Isn’t OSHA required to go there after a death? Isn’t that standard protocol?
Bi-polar is not caused by experiences. PTSD is. Huge difference around workers’ comp benefits. Both are treatable!!! Educate yourself about mental illness before spreading myths in these kind of forums.
Are you folks suggesting that our Veterans should not recieve what they need to recover from PTSD either? Let them suffer with impotent rage and night sweats so they can carry a weapon with shaky hands and an unquiet mind? Isn’t our responsiblity to all workers to treat the whole person?
June 26th, 2012 at 2:25 pm
Totally get it Willy, and you’re welcome.
April, it’s rather rude of you to tell me I need to educate myself about mental illness and that I am spreading myths. You’re talking to the wrong gal - I have learned more about this realm than almost anyone I know. I challenge you to expand your own education.
Factually the entire field is a fraud. That’s a controversial statement, I know. Check out Citizens Commission for Human Rights for more info. They stand up for people abused by psychiatry and expose its human rights violations, which are many.
I don’t disagree that people should be cared for as whole people, as you put it. I just don’t think psychiatry is the way to go about it. It damages people in the name of help.
June 26th, 2012 at 4:32 pm
I don’t think anyone here is saying that April. In fact, the responses to me as a veteran were very respectful in tone.
June 26th, 2012 at 5:24 pm
Megan, I wasn’t talking to you directly so don’t be so personally defensive. Someone else introduced the myth that mental health diseases have no treatment and others seemed to agree. And in the future, don’t call someone rude and then do the action you just declared as rude.
All, the fact that the wonderful commission Megan references has a horrible amount of cases of bad medicine does not erase the fact that thousands do indeed benefit from treatment. Cardiologists mis-diagnosis heart problems and therefore undertake the wrong course of action, but no one is saying that 100% of those doctors are frauds.
PTSD treatment paid by workers’ comp for this steelworker and others in similar circumstances will lead to those workers healing. It will not lead to workers’ comp covering bi-polar disorder and OCD.
June 27th, 2012 at 7:36 am
April your ranting, if the first death took such a toll and was so traumatic then why did he go out of his way to go see the second ? were not talking “rape” were talking about an accident that happened and since none of us knows details who says their was a safety violation, they could have jumped as far as we know. ive seen death and would never wish it on anyone and everyone handles it in a different way but this man went out of his way to see second accident and im sure the statute of limitation and quite possibly several letters from lawyers drove this.
June 27th, 2012 at 8:17 am
April, I forgot to mention that the comment you made accusing me of blaming rape victims was also down right rude and not called for. You shouldn’t be judging people for posting a simple comment. Everyone is entitled to their own opinion on the article without being slandered by others.
June 27th, 2012 at 2:24 pm
Food for thought - an article specifically about the military and using Seroquel for PTSD, and the impending outcome of such:
http://truth-out.org/news/item/9938-controversial-drug-receives-military-restrictions-and-food-and-drug-administration-warnings-as-its-patent-expires